Designing and Developing an Online Services System: A Case of Maybank Students' Residential Hall

When internet services became cheap and available in the world, many organizations use it to enhance its benefits and to communicate with users in anywhere and anytime. Because that most universities used the facilities in online services to increase their abilities in organizing work. Online services are not limited to use in the universities for e-learning only. Although, the students who interact with online services increasingly, a common problem is that students online services need more efficient interaction. In other words, the sites lack usability; this research to design and develop an online services system for Maybank Students’ Residential Hall aid to solve this problem and to support the communication between students and residential hall staff

Measures of growth of discrete rational equations

Measures of growth of discrete rational equation

The effect of a contextual, organizational, individual and system factors on customer satisfaction of CRM implementation in public sector in Oman

A lot of benefits could be gained when implementing customer relationship management such as increased customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and often organizational benefits. Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to a system which manages the interactions of organizations with future customers as well as existing customers. The main purpose of this thesis was to develop an understanding of the effect of a contextual, organizational, individual and system factors on customer satisfaction of CRM implementation in public sector in Oman. The data collection measurement of this study is a survey questionnaire which is distributed to the employees who is working in organizations which implemented CRM system in the public sector. A total of 562 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents, 407 were returned and 356 cases were used for the analysis. The data collected is tested and analyzed by using the SPSS and Partial Least Squares (PLS). The study has presented empirical evidence for the influence and effect of variables on the implementation of CRM system in the public sector such as the significant effect of top management support, customer centered orientation, change management, end user training and data quality towards the Customer Satisfaction through the both mediators Output Quality and Perceived Quality. This research provides a framework for studying the factors that affect CRM implementation through three previous theories and models (Expectation Disconfirmation Theory; An Integrated Model of CRM Implementation and a Model of Critical Success Factors for Public Sector CRM Implementation). Besides that, this research is one of very few CRM system implementation studies in the Middle East region. Also, there is a lack of research regarding the implementation of CRM in the Public Sector in Oman. Furthermore, the findings are also important for the Omani government if it seriously desires Oman to improve customer satisfaction with government services

Comprehensive assessment of a nationwide simulation-based course for artificial life support

BACKGROUND: Successful implementation of medical technologies applied in life-threatening conditions, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) requires appropriate preparation and training of medical personnel. The pandemic has accelerated the creation of new ECMO centers and has highlighted continuous training in adapting to new pandemic standards. To reach high standards of patients\u27 care, we created the first of its kind, National Education Centre for Artificial Life Support (NEC-ALS) in 40 million inhabitants\u27 country in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The role of the Center is to test and promote the novel or commonly used procedures as well as to develop staff skills on management of patients needing ECMO. METHOD: In 2020, nine approved and endorsed by ELSO courses of Artificial Life Support with ECMO were organized. Physicians participated in the three-day high-fidelity simulation-based training that was adapted to abide by the social distancing norms of the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge as well as crucial cognitive, behavioral and technical aspects (on a 5-point Likert scale) of management on ECMO were assessed before and after course completion. Moreover, the results of training in mechanical chest compression were also evaluated. RESULTS: There were 115 participants (60% men) predominantly in the age of 30-40 years. Majority of them (63%) were anesthesiologists or intensivists with more than 5-year clinical experience, but 54% had no previous ECMO experience. There was significant improvement after the course in all cognitive, behavioral, and technical self-assessments. Among aspects of management with ECMO that all increased significantly following the course, the most pronounced was related to the technical one (from approximately 1.0 to more 4.0 points). Knowledge scores significantly increased post-course from 11.4 ± SD to 13 ± SD (out of 15 points). The quality of manual chest compression relatively poor before course improved significantly after training. CONCLUSIONS: Our course confirmed that simulation as an educational approach is invaluable not only in training and testing of novel or commonly used procedures, skills upgrading, but also in practicing very rare cases. The implementation of the education program during COVID-19 pandemic may be helpful in founding specialized Advanced Life Support centers and teams including mobile ones. The dedicated R&D Innovation Ecosystem established in the ECMO for Greater Poland program, with developed National Education Center can play a crucial role in the knowledge and know-how transfer but future research is needed

THE EFFECT OF TEACHING PUNCTUATION MARKS EXPLICITLY ON OMANI EFL LEARNERS WRITING ABILITIES

This is a research study about teaching punctuation marks explicitly and its effects on EFL learners` writing abilities. To do this, 40 Omani EFL learners at intermediate level from Sohar College of Applied Sciences, Oman were selected. Ministerial placement test homogenized students according to their level of proficiency. A pretest was applied to ensure students similar knowledge on the basis of punctuation marks. Then, treatment was provided for the experimental group of learners and finally another writing test as a posttest was applied to measure the results. Results revealed that teaching punctuation marks explicitly doesn’t have any effect on the learners` writing abilities in that college.  Article visualizations

Reliable Broadcast over Cognitive Radio Networks: A Bipartite Graph-Based Algorithm

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology that aims to enhance the spectrum utilisation by enabling unlicenced users to opportunistically use the vacant spectrum bands assigned to licenced users. Broadcasting is considered as a fundamental operation in wireless networks, as well as in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). The operation of most network protocols in the ad hoc network depends on broadcasting control information from neighbouring nodes. In traditional single-channel or multichannel ad hoc networks, due to uniform channel availability, broadcasting is easily implemented as nodes are tuned to a single common channel. On the contrary, broadcasting in CR ad hoc networks is both a challenging and complex task. The complexity emerges from the fact that different CR users might acquire different channels at different times. Consequently, this partitions the network into different clusters. In this chapter, the problem of broadcasting in ad hoc CR networks is presented, current solutions for the problem are discussed and an intelligent solution for broadcasting based on graph theory to connect different local topologies is developed

A Marine Waste Biorefinery.

Ph. D. Thesis.Biodiesel is a renewable alternative to ‘petro-diesel’. There is already an established, conventional production technology based on refined vegetable oils. However, this is always more expensive than producing petroleum-based diesel, mainly due to the feedstock cost. Use of a cheap, non-edible feedstock, such as waste shark liver oil (WSLO), would reduce the biodiesel production cost and make the process economically viable. WSLO is obtained by exposing sharks’ livers to the sun until they melt and collecting the oil produced. Sharks’ livers comprise 25-30% of their body weight. Historically, the discarded WSLO was used for waterproofing wooden boats. However, this application is no longer required, as modern boats are made of fibreglass. The excess WSLO derived from these discarded sharks’ livers has great potential for being further processed into valuable products, including biodiesel, squalene and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), such as eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA). The glyceride components of the WSLO can be converted into biodiesel using existing biodiesel processing technologies, while the squalene, EPA and DHA may be extracted and sold as value-added products through biorefinery processes. This study investigated the production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from WSLO using both acid (sulfuric acid, H2SO4) and base (sodium hydroxide, NaOH) catalysts. Due to the high levels of free fatty acids (FFA) in WSLO, homogeneous alkali-catalysed transesterification was less effective than the acid-catalysed process, resulting in a maximum WSLO to FAME conversion of only 40% after 15 min at a 60°C temperature, a 1.5 wt.% of NaOH catalyst and a 6:1 molar ratio of methanol to WSLO. The acid-catalysed transesterification of the WSLO was investigated, using Design of Experiments (DoE), by a response surface method. The acid-catalysed process achieved 99% FAME conversion during a 6.5 h reaction time at a 60°C temperature, a 5.9 wt. % of H2SO4 catalyst and a 10:3 molar ratio of methanol to WSLO. Saponification of WSLO for extracting squalene was also investigated using a DoE methodology to obtain the operating conditions for highest squalene extraction. The results showed 101.6 ± 1.3 % squalene recovery at the following operating conditions: a 5 min reaction time, a 9.9 wt. % of water loading and a 20:1 molar ratio of ethanol to oil. Aqueous silver nitrate (AgNO3) was employed for extracting EPA and DHA from fatty acid ethyl esters produced from the WSLO. The highest EPA and DHA recoveries achieved were 66.2% EPA and 83.4% DHA. These came from extractions using a 2 h reaction time, a mixing speed of 300 rpm, a 20°C reaction temperature, and a 50 wt. % of silver nitrate concentration. Techno-economic analysis was performed to assess the commercial feasibilities of acid-catalysed biodiesel production using WSLO and alkali-catalysed biodiesel production using refined vegetable oil (rapeseed oil). Aspen HYSYS-V9 was used to simulate both production types at plant capacity of 12,000 te/y and lifespan of 20 years. Net present values (NPVs) of US $34.8 and US$4.9 million were obtained for the acid-catalysed WSLO process and the alkali-catalysed vegetable oil process, respectively. The internal rate of return (IRR) was calculated to be 260% for the acid-catalysed process and 56% for the alkali-catalysed process. Therefore, the acid-catalysed process is more profitable than the alkali-catalysed process due to its higher IRR percentage. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to show the effect of certain variables on the NPV of both biodiesel production types. It was concluded that the biodiesel selling price has more effect on the NPV than the glycerol variation price, whereas the triglyceride feedstock purchase prices have the largest influence on the NPV of the two processes.Diwan Royal Court of Oman Governmen

Does the Twin-Deficits doctrine apply to the Gulf Cooperation Council? A dynamic panel VAR-X model approach

Economies around the world tend to show a strong link from fiscal to current accounts deficits. The phenomenon is recognized as the twin-deficits doctrine, which stipulates the presence of a uni-directional causal relationship from the fiscal account deficit (FD) to the current account deficit (CD). This relationship is also apparent for the commodity-based economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCC). The region is well-documented to rapidly succumb to deteriorating fiscal and current account deficits with any prolonged decline in international crude oil prices. This study extends the research of Granger non-causality between budget deficits by employing a macro-panel in a two-dimensional vector autoregression model with an exogenous variable (VAR-X) process where oil is included as the exogenous control variable. The study uses a homogeneous model in the generalized method of moments framework to conduct a comprehensive investigation between the two deficits and analyze if the twin-deficits doctrine applies to the GCC. A heterogeneous model with fixed time coefficients is then used as a robustness check to assess if the twin-deficits phenomenon applies to any of the GCC States. The results indicate that the pooling of data from six GCC States and the inclusion of international oil prices, as the third latent element, leads to the dismissal of the twin-deficits doctrine for the GCC as an integrated unit of analysis, and, for each member State of the GCC individually. Interestingly, the analysis uncovers a reverse direction of causality running from CD to FD

The Future Importance of Travel Health in the Middle East: Oman’s opportunity to enhance its services

EDITORIA

A multi-level analysis of public spending, growth and poverty reduction in Egypt:

"Egypt is a lower middle-income country with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003 of US$3,949 measured in international dollars, or purchasing power parity (World Bank 2005a). In the decade from 1975 to 1985, Egypt enjoyed rapid economic growth... however... Egypt still lags behind many middle-income countries in key social indicators. Further reforms are necessary to reduce poverty, especially if Egypt is to achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of poor between 1990 and 2015. Government expenditures are an important means of promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving income distribution... The overarching objective of this report is to use a multi-level analysis approach to assess both the effects of various government expenditures on growth and poverty reduction and the trade-offs between these two goals in order to determine policy options toward the achievement of the MDGs. The study involves analyses and simulations at household, sectoral, and regional levels, and at macro-levels using alternative analytical tools. While the analyses at each level were carried out independently, the report provides a synergy of the findings... The report concludes with a synthesis of the different levels of analysis." Authors' AbstractPublic investments, economic growth, Poverty reduction, Social indicators, Income distribution, Millennium Development Goals,